Re:TV can see through walls
by bariumbitmap on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @03:38PM
(#50445973)
Theremin did invent the Thing (a.k.a. the Great Seal bug) that worked as a passive RF cavity. However, he later invented a completely different device called the buran eavesdropping system:
> Apparently happy with ‘the thing’, Beria called on Theremin’s services again and he was enlisted for further eavesdropping operations. In 1947 or earlier, when Theremin probably served in the Kuchino sharashka outside Moscow, he was called upon to create another device for wireless surveillance, but this time it should operate fully remotely without any device planted at the target site. The project received the code name buran (snowstorm). To solve this difficult task, Theremin paid attention to the resonators already present in a building, such as windows. A conversation in a room may cause window panes to vibrate slightly, and Theremin devised a method to detect these vibrations from a distance, using an infrared beam directed at the window pane, and then to interpret them and convert them to discernible speech (Glinsky, 2005, p.261).
>
> The buran was able to detect speech from as far away as 500 metres, making detection very difficult. Interception would have to disrupt the infrared beam and jamming would require optical overpowering. Both were unlikely. However, it could be used only when weather permitted and was not effective in rain, fog or smog (Glinsky, 2005, p.261). Buran is often considered a predecessor of the laser microphone, although it employed an infrared beam rather than laser.
> Apparently happy with ‘the thing’, Beria called on Theremin’s services again and he was enlisted for further eavesdropping operations. In 1947 or earlier, when Theremin probably served in the Kuchino sharashka outside Moscow, he was called upon to create another device for wireless surveillance, but this time it should operate fully remotely without any device planted at the target site. The project received the code name buran (snowstorm). To solve this difficult task, Theremin paid attention to the resonators already present in a building, such as windows. A conversation in a room may cause window panes to vibrate slightly, and Theremin devised a method to detect these vibrations from a distance, using an infrared beam directed at the window pane, and then to interpret them and convert them to discernible speech (Glinsky, 2005, p.261).
>
> The buran was able to detect speech from as far away as 500 metres, making detection very difficult. Interception would have to disrupt the infrared beam and jamming would require optical overpowering. Both were unlikely. However, it could be used only when weather permitted and was not effective in rain, fog or smog (Glinsky, 2005, p.261). Buran is often considered a predecessor of the laser microphone, although it employed an infrared beam rather than laser.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48828289